Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Everybody Hates Leon ❯ The Stupid Classmates ( Chapter 13 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
Chapter 13

A/N: I'm trying to make this story as accurate as possible. However, I am American, and as such do not know everything about German customs. I've done a bit of research, but there's only so much that encyclopedia articles can tell you. I'm especially worried about this chapter because it's about school. What if I get their methods of teaching wrong? What if I get the school hours wrong? And so on and so forth...this chapter is also partially based off of events from my own life. I'll be doing that a lot as the story progresses.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, but unfortunately I do own a nasty case of writer's block.

September 1994

Leon was finally old enough to go to school. He had been looking forward to it for quite some time. He would often sneak Zigfried's school textbooks up to his room. This was a problem because Zigfried needed those books for his homework. Eventually I got Leon a stack of secondhand books from the school discard bin.

It turned out that, although Zigfried still had troubles in reading, he was quite gifted in math. At the age of ten he had taken, and passed, the test for the most math-oriented secondary school. In Germany, students are given tests to see which secondary school they'll end up in. There's a school for average kids, a business school, and a science and math school. Zigfried wasn't going into the business school because Herr von Schroeder thought the teachers there were lazy and stupid.

I truly thought that Leon could skip primary school and go straight to a secondary school. However, the people in charge of the schools didn't agree with me. They put Leon with the other kids his age. What was worse, Frau von Schroeder would not let Leon "contaminate" the private schools. ( A/N: I believe that these are called "public schools" in the UK. Since I have quite a few British people reading my story, I'll start trying to provide translations for patently American words!) Leon would have to go to school with the less privileged and more worldly children. This made me really wish that I had some mental tanks for my mental war on Frau von Schroeder!

Despite all of this, Leon could not wait for the first day of his school career!

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< /div>I tried to prepare Leon as best I could. I gave him all sorts of rules to follow:be nice to the teacher, be nice to your classmates, join in class activities even if you'd rather read, don't stuff yourself with treats from that big paper cone, etc. (A/N: um..I think the cone is called a schultute, but I'm not sure of the spelling. You can google it if you want to. And I know no one likes author's notes, so I'll try not to put in any more for this chapter.)

Leon was so excited the night before school started that he couldn't sleep. He couldn't even concentrate on reading! By some miracle, he didn't seem a bit tired the next morning. He was even more excited than before!

We ran a bit late because Leon kept checking his school bag to make sure that all of his favorite books were in there and in the correct order of favoriteness. However, we managed to get to the school on time due to some breaking of the speed limit on my part.

I wanted to go in with Leon, but he preferred to just be dropped off at the doors. He said that he wanted to start school as fast as possible! I wanted to tell him that he might get lost without me to help him find his class, but Leon was determined to do everything himself.

I spent most of the day doing equal amounts of housework and worrying.

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T hat afternoon, I was so anxious about how school went that I arrived to pick Leon up an hour before school let out! Thankfully, I had brought a book to read while I waited.

After what seemed like forever, the kids started exiting the building. After what seemed like forever all over again, I spotted Leon in the crowd. He got in the car and we drove off.

At first Leon said nothing. He was busy eating an apple from the paper cone thingie. However, he had plenty to say when he was done eating. Apparently, he had prepared an entire monologue concering the exact stupidity level of his classmates!

"Leon", I interrupted after a while, "I told you to be nice to the other students. That includes not calling them stupid."

"But they ARE stupid!" Leon insisted. "They don't speak any English and they can't read! The words were right there on the paper, but they didn't pay attention to them! They just made up new words! I corrected them about a million times, but they wouldn't listen!"

I had been afraid that this would happen. I dove into a long lecture about how most kids can't read at that age, and they're not stupid, and that learning to read before one's second birthday is not what the average kid does. Since Leon was an obedient kid, he stopped complaining, but I could tell that he was still thinking the same things.

Leon, I thought, you're gonna have a very long next five years of your life!